Lets discuss Weapons and Combat

[TheOtherSteve]

so to cut through the eternal cycle of the dreaded five topics (oreportal,stamina,Dsquito, Sailing, inventory) discussed here I instead bring you a thread where we can actually talk about Weapons and combat balance in valheim currently.

Overall I adore the game and its combat, its a wonderful blend of mechanics that work great, but it does get somewhat simplistic over time. I personally expect a full combat rework at some point in the future.

currently Sword and Mace are basically the same weapon, with the mace winning from a metagaming perspective due to Blunt damage and knockback. Swords are much better looking tho.

to me the biggest problem children are the spear and Tower shield. the spear melee has the same range as the knife due to its awkward animation, it does not get a three attack combo with extra damage on third hit, and its sole purpose is to throw it. the tower shield trades so much away for 15 more block power its not viable really. heavy, more expensive, slows you down...

What do you find good about Valheims combat? am I wrong about the spear? I havent tried out the other weapons much, whats your experience and loadout? any tricks to get the best use out of a weapon?

[fmalfeas]

So far, I like using axe. Sure, it's the same axe I use on trees, but it works.

[KippenKaasBaas]

Because of the parry mechanic the tower-shields are pretty much useless.
And bows should be nerved. Luckily devs already confirmed this is going to happen.

[KippenKaasBaas]

Originally posted by Anarchist Jurisdictor:

Originally posted by KippenKaasBaas:

Because of the parry mechanic the tower-shields are pretty much useless.
And bows should be nerved. Luckily devs already confirmed this is going to happen.

Hopefully the nerf comes in the form of enemies just blocking the arrows intelligently rather than just a numeric debuff, since I don't have much inclination to hang around for an early access game that sweats pointless rebalances in a PvE setting when half a dozen common quality of life features are missing.

I agree.
They should focus on more important things than re-balancing. But I do think the bow nerf will just me numeric. Or maybe arrows will be more expensive to make or something.

[TheOtherSteve]

well, I started this thread not because it needs change, or is all that critical, I just wanted a fun general discussion. by the way, are there any 2handed users around? how was your experience?

[ministrog]

The tower shield is for when you're fighting things that are powerful and your tech isn't quite OP just yet. It gets niche'r because of how stamina works. You get hit by a skeleton burns just as much stamina as stone golem. So fast attacking creatures are a problem (greydwarf brute).

The spear is another niche play style. Some have praised it as highest dps... but that's harder to test. Personally, I'd say they're (axe, swords, etc) similar dps, with a ranged option.

Edit: 2hand axe is fun. very impractical, but very satisfying.

[TheOtherSteve]

Oh one thing I noticed is that the Damage seems to get divided by the number of things you hit, both trees and enemies. so you hit one dwarf and gets full damage, but you hit three and it barely scratches them. similarly with stumps, my axe hits the ground and deals less damage.
I think that accounts for the high DPS feeling of the spear and Atgeir, as they will always hit just one enemy.

[Korhal]

I mostly use a spear+shield and a knife. If the enemies are weak to blunt, I keep a mace as well.

We are only a pair, so there is that with the weapons, as she is using mostly the sword.

[Chro]

The spear is actually pretty good, the secret here is to combo with the parry mechanic, once the enemy is staggered you can land 3-4 fast hits, also the throwing secondary attack is useful for taking out deathsquitos as they are charging you or finish that pesky drake that didnt die in a single arrow.

[Khloros]

Mace winning....you know the silver sword is the highest DPS in the game right?

[Lord Klauth]

As someone who used spears for the whole playthrough I can say the reach and the fact that you can't hit things that are even slightly lower or higher than you makes it often obnoxious and infuriating to use. Add on top of that the fact that I simply stopped using the throw because I had 2 spears simply vanish out of existence after throwing them (and no, I am 100% certain I didn't just carelessly forget where it landed).
The really good thing about the spear I noticed is that a good amount of enemies seem vulnerable to pierce damage, like trolls for instance, never had a problem with them.
I kinda wanted to try something new for once, but next time I'm just gonna use a good ol' sword for sure.

[Chemhound]

Can imagine the critical modifier being removed from Bows, since if you initiate an attack with one while the creature is unaware, it's an automatic critical, and using some creative landscaping, you can reset the aggro on creatures. Rince and Repeat. This makes the bow one of the more OP weapons available.

I agree Tower Shields are a complete waste of resources since you lose the ability to Parry for a small boost in blocking power, but if blocking power is an issue.... you could always just roll as well. Also the downside of being slowed as well.... The small boost doesn't out weight all the cons.

From my limited use of Spears.... I just find them completely worthless, their range and wonky hitbox makes them too unreliable in combat, and throwing them doesn't prove to be much benefit either when you can just whip out your bow instead.

[djinnxy]

I can't speak for all of the weapons, but I'll share what little I have done.

Character one stayed in troll armor through the snow/mountain biome primarily using dagger and parry shield with bow for a back up. This was probably slightly easier than my second character because there's such a heavy reliance on stamina in the game. Sneaking was situational, but it's completely possible to tank anything except like maybe bonemass or flying enemies of any kind.

Character two is keeping up with the heaviest armor available and tower shield with mace. I'm currently up to the snow/mountain biome. There's much less reliance on bow for back-up , but it's still necessary because you run into stamina issues much more often. If it wasn't for the stamina issues you could stand there all day with a raised tower shield and take next to no damage. I got right in bonemass' face without any dodge and just swatted him/her down.
I had to back off twice to recover from stamina loss and poison.

Both dagger and mace are very viable. The tower shield gets a lot of flack, but it's actually pretty good. Bow is necessary for a back-up no matter what weapon is used.

[Atma]

Originally posted by Khloros:

Mace winning....you know the silver sword is the highest DPS in the game right?

I'm curious why you believe this. Is there math to support this?

Unless the Silver sword somehow swings much faster than the Blackmetal sword, this doesn't seem possible. Spirit damage only effects Skeletons & Draugr and is a DoT effect.

Blackmetal tops out at 113 Slash damage per swing, while Silver only tops out at 93 Slash damage per swing, unless you are fighting Undead or Draugr in which cases it adds a DoT that gets overwritten each time you swing anyway.

The Spirit damage doesn't even come into play in 90% of circumstances, unless you're in the Swamp, in which case Frostner will outclass the Silver sword anyway.

[Fauxsteel]

Frostner needs a slight nerf I think. It's too valuable of a weapon.
I like it - it's cool, but I don't want to be forced into one weapon type because of a weapon's ability. I do have a backup (sword) to deal with blunt-resistant enemies, but I know i'll only use it in that situation.

What I don't like about combat - food running out mid fight (while not being able to track the timer(s) on them).

Eating on the fly gets you killed in the right/wrong circumstance. And 'waiting until the food runs out, then reapplying it before engaging' isn't enjoyable gameplay.